FLU as much as I would like to pin this on you and your run of bad luck I cannot. In fact this game gave the chargers more luck and ample opportunity than I would have ever imagined.
The bottom line is that unfortunately we have to pin this loss on our coaching staff. You CANNOT get to the opponents 10 yard line 4 times and come away with 12 points. Not against the Patriots, not against anyone. When we got into the red zone there was no imagination, we did not utilize the size of our receivers, we did not attempt any gadget plays such as a shovel pass or a quick pass, we did not even try any play action. It was so damn painful to watch. You cannot call a freeking timeout on 3rd and 1 and run off tackle and lose 2 yards. Sneak it on 3rd and sneak it on 4th and you get the friggin yard. The same repetitive crap may work in the regular season against the a 500 team but when you are on the road in the afc championship you HAVE to do something a bit different. YOU DONT BEAT NEW ENGLAND WITH FIELD GOALS.
To me this game hurt worse then if we had been blown off the field. However I never saw 1 single flare to the backs. New England was hip to our screens but eventually they figured out that rivers could not throw the ball more then 30 yards with his bum knee and tightened up and took away the seams. Chambers and Jackson played great. Even Rivers played well.
I do believe it is time for Kaeding to go. He may be accurate but he is just not much more then a 2008 version of Rolf Bernershke and I would rather roll the dice with a Seabass any time.
Defensively we were valiant and I think we played alot more man which really helped. Yet when we softened up the zone Brady picked us apart outside. Why is it New England can run the quick pass outside and always pick up yardage but we cannot nor do we even try it. There were also a few times when the zone could not rotate outside quick enough and one time moss was alone for a quick 14 and at least 2-3 times faulk and even the fullback #44 was sitting there pretty wide open… I still wish we qould have chose to sell out a little more. I think we actually did rattle Brady the few times we got some pressure on. We DID force some bad passes out of him. It can happen.
Yet when it came down to it we couldn’t stop them. We were tired and we got tired because our O couldn’t score. Even our long drives were not long drives. We moved down the field relatively quick and in larger chunks not 14 play drives. The D was out of gas by the 4th. No big plays to speak of by either Sean but the cornerbacks were men today.
Well as we always say here in San Diego… maybe next year.
